Methods, systems, and devices for transparent data encryption are described. A transparent proxy may enforce a specific encryption policy for a data transmission from a source host to a target host, where the transparent proxy determines if the data transmission is encrypted according to a specific encryption policy prior to forwarding the data transmission to the target host. As such, if the data transmission is not encrypted according to the specific encryption policy, the transparent proxy may encrypt the data transmission and then forward it to the target host. Alternatively, if the transparent proxy determines that the data transmission is encrypted according to the specific encryption policy, then the transparent proxy may refrain from further encrypting the data transmission and forward the data transmission to the target host without the additional encryption.